I have a triumph thunderbird 900 that Ihave been restoring over the past few years, but keep drawing a blank trying to have the stainless exhaust front pipes rechromed as every stainless chroming fim that I contact will not do them as they say it would contaminate thier tanks.

I have already had them polished but after a few hundred miles they turn yellowish brown and this detracts from the appearance of the bike.

Chroming of stainless steel:- not sure I follow the reasoning behind this.

However it will not stop the front pipes from discolouring even if chromed. It is a result of flames within the pipe which heat the pipe to high temperatures, only cure is to keep polishing them after every ride.

However if you were to have the pipes coloured black it would be less noticable or even not at all noticable, investigate having them ceramic coated.

a biking mentor
told me that to prevent the downpipes discolouring he used to wind copper wire round them and then back to the frame. This was on old Triumphs. never tried it, but can see how it would dissipate heat from pipes

post has reminded me that back in the 70/80's we were able to get chrome springs which were fitted to the down pipes just as the pipes come out of the cylinder head, this were to do the same as mostly' post infers, however I seem to remember that pipes still coloured with them fitted so I believe they were discontinues. Springs were a quarter of and inch thick.